Presently, magnetic stimulation devices are employed in the treatment of brain neuron disorder such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia, bipolar disease, epileptic or febrile seizures etc. For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive method that uses brief, intense pulses of electric current delivered in a coil placed on a patient's head to induce a time-varying magnetic field that gives rise to eddy currents within the patient's brain. Magnetic stimulators with various shapes and geometries have been used in an attempt to generate different eddy current density profiles in order to target neural tissues located at different depths in the skull. While certain magnetic stimulators have been able to stimulate neurons in deeper cranial structures, in many cases the magnitude of the applied current to reach those structures generates excessive surface heat is uncomfortable for the patient. In addition, deeper brain stimulation may also be more diffuse in its treatment field, thereby activating non-targeted neurons in conjunction with the targeted neurons. Other magnetic stimulators may provide more focused eddy current densities, but only at or near the surface of the skull.
Efforts are currently underway to develop magnetic neural stimulation systems that can provide focused stimulation of neural tissues that are beneath the skull. Magnetic stimulators that can provide a practitioner with the ability to selectively stimulate certain neural populations without overheating or stimulating peripheral tissue regions may be desirable.